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AMD Gains on Rumored Acquisition by Samsung

Shares of AMD (NYSE: AMD) rallied strongly on Wednesday, trading as much as 10% higher.

The company made a recent announcement that might have contributed to the strength: on Tuesday, AMD appointed John Byrne its Chief Sales Officer.

There were also some positive posts about the company around the web. Trefis posted an article arguing that AMD's recent workstation graphics lineup would pose a threat to its rival NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA). LegitReviews posted a screenshot of what could be the benchmarks for AMD's forthcoming Piledriver CPU.

However, market chatter might have been the strongest catalyst. Rumors circulated that Korean tech giant Samsung (OTC: SSNHY) was planning to acquire AMD for its processing technology.

On the surface, the rumor may not make much sense. AMD produces processors for servers, desktops and laptops -- not tablets or smartphones. Most of Samsung's recent electronic success has come from its Galaxy lineup, where AMD's technology would have little effect.